$2.1bn arms deal probe: EFCC arrests ex-military intelligence chief, Gen. Wiwa

As the probe into the $2.1 billion arms deal continues, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), over the weekend arrested a former Director of Military Intelligence (DMI), Major General Wiwa, younger brother to late Ken Saro Wiwa, former Ogoni human rights activist.

According to The Sun, General Wiwa who is currently the Deputy Commandant at the Armed Forces Resettlement Centre, Oshodi, has been transferred to Abuja, where he is being detained and will be questioned on his involvement in the misappropriation of the arms procurement fund.

Wiwa served in the office of the National Security Adviser when late General Patrick Azazi served as NSA. He remained in office during Col. Sambo Dasuki’s tenure from where he was appointed Director of Military Intelligence when Lt. General Azubuike Ihejirika became the Chief of Army staff, a position he retained under the tenure of General Kenneth Minimah.

Best Happy Birthday Message, Special Happy Birthday Text To Friends And Loved Ones

Here is a collection of our happy birthday messages which you can send to your friends, loved ones, boyfriend, girlfriend and more.
Please feel free to use them and do share using the share buttons at the end of the post.

*Birthday is the most special day in one’s life, enjoy it to the fullest.

*The sun is shining more brightly to wish you happy birthday.

*Wish you an outstanding and fabulous happy birthday.

*Happy birthday to the most beautiful person on the earth.

*Let your happy birthday be full of all the colors of the rainbow.

*Age hasn’t spoiled you. Happy Birthday.

*I hope that today is the beginning of a great year for you. Happy Birthday.

*A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are – even if you are getting older. Happy Birthday.

*A great friend and a happy birthday, that is what you are and what I wish for you.

*A happy birthday to a person who in dog years would already be dead.

*A lighter? We’re going to need a flamethrower to light up your candles.

*A true friend remembers your birthday but not your age. Happy Birthday.

*Age is a number, but life is the calculator.

*Another year has passed and as you celebrate your birthday this year and turn a year older. May you have all that you wish for come true. Have a happy birthday!

*Another year has passed but rather than count the years, let me just say how much we count on you. Happy Birthday.

*Another year older. Well at least we are growing up to be what we should be – the two hottest babes around. Happy Birthday Gorgeous.

*As King David said, May you prosper wherever you go and in whatever you do. Happy Birthday.

*Being young is a privilege. Being attractive a genetic gift. Being cool, that is all you. Happy Birthday.

*Best birthday wishes ever, yeah that is my birthday wish for you.

*Best wishes for a happy day filled with love and laughter. Happy Birthday.

*Birthday greeting, birthday greeting, generic birthday greeting. Sorry but that was all I could afford.

*Birthdays are special occasions and they call for special celebrations. Let us celebrate you birthday today!

*Birthdays come and go, so you need to Go Go Go. Happy Birthday.

*Blowing out another candle should mean that you have enjoyed another year and made the world a better place than when you blew out fewer candles. Make every day and every candle count. Happy Birthday.

*Celebrate your birthday today. Celebrate being Happy every day.

*Celebrate your birthday, go have lots of fun, everybody should enjoy it and have tons of fun. Happy Birthday.

*Congratulations on being even more experienced. I’m not sure what you learned this year but I hope that you had fun. Happy Bday.

*Do you know what people in China do on their birthday? They get older too. Happy Birthday.

*Do you want to look back in life and think about what a great life you’ve had? Then you better start working towards it right away! Happy Birthday!

*Don’t count the years, count the wishes and all the cheers.

*Don’t look for a heaven in the sky, try making one here.

*For all the advances in medicine, there is still no cure for the common birthday.

*For your birthday, I just want to say; I hope you can see, how special you are to me. Happy birthday my love!

*Forever young and good-looking. That’s all i wish you for.

*Forget how long you’ve lived. Look at how much you’ve accomplished until now and how far you’ve got to go. Happy Birthday!

*Friends may come and go, but birthdays accumulate.

*Get up. Stand up. Stand up for your birthday fun.

*Good things happen when you just go for it. Happy Birthday.

Catholic leadership warns priests against market place prophecies

The Catholic Bishop’s Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), has warned its priests against ``market place prophecies and visions, charismatic display of talents and material salvation’’

The President of the Conference, Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama gave the warning on Sunday in Abuja during the Catholic Bishop’s Conference at Our Lady Queen of Nigeria Pro-Cathedral.

He admonished the priests to shun worldliness and materialism.
He charged them not to succumb to the temptation of importing unwanted doctrines that would promote personality and curry favour.

"We must not be frightened into believing in God of ``now, now’’, cajoled by mouth watering material attractions or ostentatious living of some ministers of God.

"We should emphasise the need for sober Christianity without tricks, rhetoric, fanfare and the craze for social media publicity.

"All priests must not compete with trendy pastors to see visions and utter prophecies because they sometimes cause psychological disposition.

"We should help people to interior conversion and attitudinal change,’’ he said.

He urged Christian religious leaders to admonish Christians to pray ceaselessly and evangelise through genuine witnessing and not wooing people with material things or any form of moral coercion.

"We must avoid melo-dramatic displays that look like modern broad-way shows.

"Catholic priests should avoid flamboyant spirituality and noisy liturgy and teach the people values of internalised prayers from the heart.

"The gifts of speaking in tongues, miracle and prophecies are good as long as they are genuine,’’ he said.
Kaigama further urged Christians to help humanity in love to conquer poverty and narrow the yawning gap between the rich and the poor.

"It is only when we engage in works of mercy in favour of the needy that we can hope for a stable, peaceful and safe world,’’ he said.

Aston Villa 0-6 Liverpool: Sturridge Scores In Easy Win

Liverpool tore Aston Villa apart and rendered their EPL hopes in tatters, after Sturridge opened the scoring in a 6-0 win.

Sturridge found the net, after heading in a a Coutinho cross in the 16th minute.

And just 10 minutes later, Milner whipped in a cross that missed everyone and found the net.

Emre Can scored the third goal, following a mistake from Bacuna, and substitute Divock Origi found the net seconds after he came on.

And following some poor defending, Clyne was able to tap in the fifth goal for Liverpool.

After which Kolo Toure scored his first Liverpool goal and made it six for the away side in an humiliating defeat for Villa.

UNN ranked amonst the best universities in te world

Nsukka, UNN, has been graded the best in the country and among the best 2,000 in the world in the latest Webometrics ranking released in January this year.

The Webometrics University Ranking, which provides indicators for more than 12,000 universities in the world, is based on university web presence, visibility and web access.

The ranking system measures how strongly a university is present in the web by its own web domain, sub-pages, rich files and published scholarly articles.

According to the ranking system, web presence is a reliable indicator of the global performance and prestige of the universities and could serve as an indirect way to measure efficiency of universities in the performance of their tripartite function of teaching, research and knowledge transfer.

The Vanguard reports that spokesman of UNN, Chief Okwun Omeaku made this known at Nsukka, saying that the improved rating of the institution was not unconnected with the enhanced research efforts in the university following the Vice-Chancellor’s encouragement and financial reward system.

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the replacement of 13 vice chancellors of Nigerian universities.

Twelve of them are federal ones, and Vincent Tenebe, the vice chancellor of the National Open University, has also been relieved of his position. All these institutions were established by the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.

Shocking: Boko Haram trains in Somalia - President

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia spoke at a security conference in Munich, Germany, on Sunday, February 14. Photo: Reuters
President Mohamud said at a security conference in Germany that militant groups in Africa are associated and that the African states need to be organised to be able to deal with their threats.

He noted that his country has only made limited progress in setting up a working political system.

“Without a stable Somalia, the whole region of the Horn of Africa will remain unstable and by and large, the African continent. There are proofs and evidence that (for) some time Boko Haram has been trained in Somalia and they went back to Nigeria.

“The terrorists are so linked together, they are associated and so organized, (that) we the world we need to be so organized,” he added.
Somalia is plagued by attacks by al-Shabab militants, as well as corruption and political infighting. It has been having the status of a ‘failed state’ for almost 25 years, since the civil war that has eliminated the last functioning central administration.

Al-Shabab militants, which are linked to al-Qaeda, staged numerous attacks one government officials and civilians. They also conduct raids on the Kenyan territories. In their latest attempt of mass murder, the terror group arranged an explosion on board a passenger jet that departed from the Mogadishu airport.

Boko Haram, on the other hand, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, which is also known as Daesh (in Arabic), which is wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq.

Boko Haram have killed more than 126 people in January 2016 only. The deadly attacks continued on February too. For instance, a raid on the IDP camp in the beginning of this month claimed over 58 lives.

The deadly sect killed over 20,000 people since the start of their insurgency in Nigeria in 2009. The terrorists have since forced over 2.6 million people to abandon their homes.

RRS discover 22 ATM, 2 mobile phones from alleged madman

About 22 Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) cards have been recovered from a supposed madman who was arrested by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS).

The RRS of the Lagos state police command also found on the allegedly insane man: two mobile phones and power bank.
He was apprehended in Victoria Island area of Lagos state.

Lanrewaju Jaiyeola
The man, who identified himself as Lanrewaju Jaiyeola, 39, was intercepted by the police following the suspicious manner in which he carried a backpack along Ozumba Mbadiwe road.

The Vanguard reports that a reliable police source said 22 assorted credit cards, one Nokia phone, a blackberry, a power bank, several bank tellers of recent bank transactions and lots of invoices, amidst numerous pieces of papers, were found on him.
The unnamed source also added that they discovered eight of the credit cards were still valid.

Out of these, three would expire in 2018, another three would expire in 2017, while two would expire in 2016, said the sources whose name was withheld.

All the credit cards bore different
names and of various banks.
Confirming the arrest, RRS commander, ACP Olatunji Disu, added that upon arrival at the RRS Headquarters in Alausa, the suspect made “statements suggestive of somebody disguising as a mad man to perpetrate crime around that axis.”
He said: “Initially, we noticed that he was mentally balanced because he was answering the questions posted to him ade-quately. But all of a sudden, he started sounding incoherent and illogical. “He threatened the investigative Police officer, saying ‘I will make life unbearable for you if you don’t let me go” .

In a similar event, the RRS recently arrested one fake beggar named, Kehinde Olatubosun. The 56-year-old man had for a while disguised as a sick patient and armed with fake drug prescription paper begged his way into six-figures.

According to his confessional statement, Kehinde who hails from Ibadan, told the police how he earned N300, 000 monthly

Photos: Ebuka Obi-Uchendu and his wife, Cynthia, honeymoon in Sentosa Island

Ebuka and his wife, Cynthia, pictured as they honeymoon in Sentosa Island in Singapore. They got married last week Saturday February 6th. More photos after the cut...

Amnesty: 1500 militants surrender to Federal Government

Reports suggest that about 1,500 Niger Delta militants on Sunday, February 14, expressed their desire to surrender to the federal government by embracing the amnesty programme.

Their decision followed the intervention of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.

File photo of minister of state for petroleum resource, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu
The Punch reports that they, however, warned that their willingness to surrender arms should not be seen as an act of cowardice but an act of patriotism.

The militants’ resolution was contained in a statement in Abuja by their leaders, O.C. Babaeere and America Tekeiminikpoba, on behalf of other Commanders from Arepo, Ikorodu, Abule, Fatorla, Ibafo, Magboro, Epe, Itokin, Ilepete, Okenekene, Agric, Gbokoda camps, Camp 5 and environs.

The militants expressed their desire to surrender arms and embrace the amnesty programme so long as the government remained sincere.
While premising their action on the peaceful approach of Kachikwu, the militants declared that all NNPC facilities and their subsidiaries must work for the betterment of Nigeria and the economic efficiency in the face of dwindling oil prices.


“We also agree that all NNPC facilities and its subsidiaries must work for the betterment of Nigeria and the economic efficiency in the face of dwindling oil pricesa,” the statement said.

“However, our willingness to surrender should not be seen as an act of cowardice, rather, as an act of patriotism,” they stressed.

Meanwhile, the coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Gen Paul Boroh (rtd), has reacted to the alleged spending of N48 billion by the office in five months.

Speaking in an interview with NAN in Abuja, on February 11, Boro, who is the special adviser to the president on Niger Delta, d enied the allegation that was widely reported in some national dailies.

NBTE to sanction polytechnics offering non-accredited courses

SERIOUS sanctions now await any polytechnic in Nigeria that runs unaccredited courses, engages in illegal affiliation or admits beyond its carrying capacities.

Besides, the Nigerian polytechnic education will before the end of this year, be overhauled to give more emphasis to engineering and technological studies. By this development more preference will now be given to candidates seeking for admission in engineering related courses.

These were the thrusts of the comments of the Executive Secretary of National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) Dr Masa’ud Kazaure, yesterday at Offa, during the sent forth ceremony for the out gone Rector of the Polytechnic Dr. Mufutau Olatinwo.

Olatinwo, who had spent first two years of his 10years tenure in acting capacity, yesterday completed a two-term of four years each in office.
Kazaure, who disclosed the need for robust contributions of polytechnic to the nation’s economic growth, noted that any institution of learning offering “irrelevant courses” may no longer be a delight of the Federal Government.

Besides, he gave a directive to the authorities of the nation’s polytechnics to ensure a proper symbiotic relationship between the Town and Gown, just as he threatened the closure of any polytechnic devoid of a master plan.
The NBTE scribe said, “Polytechnic should no longer start programmes or affiliation without our approval.

There is a new government in place and we can no longer afford to do things the way we like. We want to advise the polytechnic to please stick to their carrying capacity. It is very crucial and important. We want to urge you all to update your master plan and submit your data at the due date. The change mantra must affect our mode of operations at all times.”

Describing the resuscitation of the nation’s railway system by some Chinese firms as laudable, he said the nation’s polytechnic should redesign its curriculum to enable it churn out in future, technicians and engineers that could develop indigenous technologies that would replace the Chinese.

Arsenal in search of new Vardy, Wenger declares

ARSENE Wenger is intent on finding the new Jamie Vardy as the Leicester City forward continues his dream run in the Premier League this season.

Vardy was signed by Leicester from non-League club Fleetwood Town in 2012 for a reported £1million.

After guiding the club to the Championship title in 2013-14 with 16 goals, Vardy found the net five times in 34 appearances in his debut Premier League season.

However, the 29-year-old has been in superb form in 2015-16, netting 18 goals as Leicester incredibly sit atop the league table.

Arsenal managed to lure Leicester scout Ben Wrigglesworth away from the King Power Stadium recently, and Wenger is hoping his expertise means the London-based club can unearth the new Vardy.

“Yes, of course (Arsenal want to sign the new Vardy),” Wenger said.

“We try to get the best people in every department and the Leicester scout was on our list, not just because they are top of the league but because we heard about his quality and we want the best.

“If a scout comes to convince me that this is a player of exceptional quality at that level I will take a gamble. They are out there — stars in non-League.”


• Culled from Soccerway.com

Photos: Seriake Dickson inaugurated for 2nd term as Bayelsa state governor

Bayelsa state governor, Seriake Dickson, has been sworn in for a second term as Governor of the state.

The ceremony which is currently holding at the Samson Siasia Sports Complex, has many PDP chieftains in attendance. See more photos after the cut...